Letters: caregiver program, disabled parking, sleep needs

Support program under scrutiny

As the article “Report: Caregiver program ripe for abuse” (Local, April 20) stated, In-Home Supportive Services Program helps thousands of handicapped people throughout California. My daughter is one. She is 23 and was born with a very rare syndrome that has left her incapable of caring for herself. She lives at home with us, her parents. It is difficult, but it is manageable with services like In-Home Supportive Services. If our daughter was not living with us and in a “home,” the state would be paying close to $10,000 a month for her care.

Yes, IHSS has people who take advantage of it. So, too, does workers’ compensation; should we get rid of that program?

The parents I know who need In-Home Supportive Services do not take advantage of the program. Most of us cannot have a full-time job because we need to be at home to care for our child. This means we have no health insurance or retirement unless we pay for it ourselves, and holiday, vacation or sick pay are not part of this program. We just want to be able to take care of our children at home. Leave In-Home Supportive Services alone. -- Sandra Kanczuzewski, Fallbrook

As an IHSS provider who lives with a 74-year-old Parkinson’s patient, I can attest that I am paid for about six hours of work a day at just above minimum wage.

The IHSS rules are bizarre and need reform. Examples: I am paid to drive my friend to the doctor, but not to attend the doctor’s appointment (which I have to do because he has mild dementia). Although he cannot be left alone, he is ineligible for protective custody hours. I am paid for the same number of hours worked every month, regardless of how many days are in the month. I’m allocated 16 minutes a week for housecleaning, but the state only authorizes it for 48 weeks a year, not 52. I’m paid by the task, such as one hour a day for food preparation, 90 minutes a week for laundry and mending. Each month I get 16 hours of respite time. Could county officials meet all their personal needs in 16 hours?

The grand jury report is not an attempt to balance the budget at the expense of the disabled poor, because discontinuing the IHSS program means spending millions to build care facilities for the 25,000 San Diegans currently living at home and for the professional salaries to care for them. Rather, it is an attempt to weaken the United Domestic Workers Union, which negotiates our pay with the state and county and provides coaching and support to caregivers working alone in frustrating circumstances. -- Sally Johnson, Mira Mesa

Parking placards given too freely

In response to “Making businesses accessible” (Business, April 19): As a retired physician who wears long leg braces and uses crutches because of polio, it appears to me that one of the most important yet unaddressed barriers for the truly physically handicapped is the indiscriminate prescribing of handicapped placards and license plates to persons who appear to have no physical limitations whatsoever.